North Korea criticized the US for deploying a B-1B strategic bomber in a recent joint military drill with South Korea, describing the move as an “open threat” to Pyongyang’s security, the North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported yesterday.
The North Korean Ministry of Defense spokesperson said in a statement carried by KCNA that the deployment of US strategic bombers in the region had become a routine military practice, while calling it “reckless bluffing.”
The B-1B was deployed in a joint military drill between South Korea and the US on Tuesday along with fighter jets, the South Korean Ministry of Defense said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Jeon Ha-kyu, spokesman for the South’s defense ministry, rejected North Korea’s criticism and said in a briefing that the military activities were defensive in nature.
B-1B bombers have been featured in joint military exercises in the past few years that North Korea has denounced as a rehearsal for war against it, while Seoul has portrayed the exercises as purely defensive.
“The recent military move of the US and the ROK is an open threat to the security of our state and a grave provocation that raises the military tension in the region to an extreme dangerous level,” the KCNA statement said, referring to South Korea’s official name, the Republic of Korea.
The statement said that North Korea “will deter by dint of powerful force the US aggressive attempt to permanently fix the malignant instability element in the security environment of the region.”
The air forces of South Korea and the US yesterday started a two-week joint exercise known as “Freedom Flag,” the South’s defense ministry said, with fifth-generation stealth fighter jets deployed to take on the role of a mock enemy in training.
Additional reporting by AP